


Ghostly Shots

by Kiinotasha



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, a group of short stories, and one shots, both pairing and interations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-03-22 00:39:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13752594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiinotasha/pseuds/Kiinotasha
Summary: A collection of one shots and shorts that I have written for the Phandom over the years. Warnings will be given at the top of each chapter.





	1. 101 Ways To Die

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS: Suicide Attempts, Poisoning, Drowning, Gun shots, Drinking

Danny took a deep breath, gulping down the fiery liquid in the bottle, burning his throat as it went down. He had done this twice already it really shouldn’t be such a big deal. So why was he so nervous? Blue eyes looked at the blade that he held judging the length and the sharpness. It wouldn’t take long, hopefully. A few quick cuts and two or three stabs and he would finally be able to just rest. Finishing off the rest of the bottle of alcohol he let out a large sigh.

“Now or never.” Turning the blade around in his hand he took a deep breath and jammed the blade into his side. Pain fired across his body and he grimaced as he switched sides and stabbed again. His knees buckled from the pain though he couldn’t tell if he had hit his kidneys or not, but he still had more he had to do. Holding the blade between his legs he placed his wrists on both sides of it, pressing his wrists hard against it he dragged them up cutting them almost clean to the bone. His head was light as he pushed away his healing, forcing it to work slowly on him. One more, just one more, but he couldn’t pick up his arms. Focus, he had to focus! Still fighting back his healing he concentrated on the blade and tried to gasp around it as it embedded itself in his neck. Danny tried to breathe but it was so hard and he was so tired. He could barely keep his eyes open as his blood pooled around him. His eyes slipped closed as he stopped fighting and welcomed the dark like an old friend.

He came to with a start and coughed hard, his whole body shaking. Danny’s body felt weak and heavy, his throat sore as he swallowed and took a deep breath. What? No. No no no nononono. NO! he was supposed to be dead! He thought he had finally figured it out, finally been able to die like everyone else. But all the effort was wasted. All he had to show for this attempt was a heavy body and a sore throat. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So he healed too fast now for anything that cut or pierced him to do any sort of damage. Great. He hadn’t realized that his healing had gotten that quick. Well there were other things that he could do besides carve into himself. He looked at the cup with the clear liquid in it, eight smaller bottles emptied around it. He had poured them all into one glass so that he wouldn’t have to stop to grab each one. 1.5 mg was the amount that was lethal for people, and there was more than that in each small bottle and he had managed to get eight of them. He would have to down it quickly, from everything that he had read cyanide worked quickly. Grabbing the cup he took a deep breath, he had to drink it all in one go. Putting the cup to his lips he started chugging it down as fast as he could. He had almost all of it down before he his body reacted and he had to drop the cup as he fell to knees his stomach trying to force all of it back up. Though it wasn’t the only thing coming back up, blood was in it as well. He gasped as he tried to breath, his heart felt like it was beating out of his chest and his arms shook as he tried to keep himself propped up on all fours. His stomach heaved again, this time it was more blood than anything else. Blue eyes opened wide and he fell as his body started to convulse his whole body twitching uncontrollably. He couldn’t catch his breath, couldn’t hear anything past the hammering of his heart in his ears. His sight darkened though he was completely aware of everything.

He wasn’t sure how long he was there, minutes, hours, days, he wasn’t sure at all. His head wouldn’t stop spinning, his body went in and out of convulsions, he could never get enough air in his lungs, and his heart never once slowed. Finally his heart stopped its hammering, it was slow at first, so slow he hadn’t realized that the pain from his heart had stopped until he could finally hear past the roar of it in his ears. The quick ragged breaths slowed and evened, and the last of his convulsions were reduced to muscles twitches, and he knew. He laid there staring at nothing until all of it stopped. He could cross poison off his list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny checked the knots on the ectoropes again, making sure that they were tight around his ankles, that there was no way that he could slip out of them. He stared unseeing at the water in front of him, the calm blue green of the water reflecting back at him. Closing his tired eyes he blocked everything thing out, this had to work. It had to. He couldn’t do this anymore. He was too tired to try and cling to the frayed ends of what his life had been, too tired to even try any more. He just wanted to let all of it go and for it to be over with. Taking a breath he pushed the heavy stone closer to the edge of the peer, the rough texture biting into his hands, but he didn’t care. As it tipped over the edge he followed it into the water, letting it pull him down without a fight, watching the light above him from the lamps get further and further away.

His whole body was limp, floating in the water as he blinked up at the light. It stung his eyes having them open in the water like this but he couldn’t bring himself to close them either. Something about watching that light above him was soothing.

He wasn’t sure when he shifted into his ghostly half, wasn’t even aware of the passing of time until he could feel a burn in his chest. Ghost half or not, he knew he still needed to breathe, even if it wasn’t all that much when he was in his ghost half, he still needed air. Air. The thought made the burn worse, making it almost a solid weight against him, and for the first time since he had gone into the water he tried to move one of his legs…

Panic shot through him as his brain registered that they were tied together and he started to flail and thrash, trying to get it off, but he had chosen the ectorope because he wouldn’t be able to get out of it. He was fighting hard against the rope now, trying to get out of it, trying to get away. Air. He needed air! But the more he fought against the rope the tighter it wound around his legs, and he couldn’t change his legs into a spectral tail while the ectoropes cut into him. His brain started to get fuzzy s he tried to hold back the gasp that was trying to force his mouth open, but he couldn’t. His body forced him to breathe in taking in a lungful of water that burned. His lungs heaved as they tried to get air into them, but it was useless. There was no air for him to breathe here. Finally, /finally/ he was going to be able to let go.

Something in his mind snapped and his eyes turned completely green as he blasted the rock and shot as fast as he could out of the water, landing on his hands and knees on the peer, as his body turned intangible and emptied all of the water out of his lungs. He stayed there on his knees gasping before a sob raked his body and one hand wrapped through his hair pulling hard. This was supposed to work! This was one of the few things he had left to try! It was supposed to WORK! Danny looked up at the clear starry sky and felt completely lost. What was he supposed to do now?

~~~~~~

Ripped and tattered red shoes carried him forward, stumbling and tripping over themselves. Dead blue eyes were blurred and unfocused as he moved forward. This was it, the last thing that he had to try. Hanging? Didn’t work, his ghost had stopped the snapping of his neck before he could hit the end of the rope. Being hit by a car? His body healed too fast, before they even got out of the car to see if he was okay his body was almost completely healed. Starved? He had gotten so hungry that he had attacked and eaten a lower level ghost, not snapping out of it until the ectoplasm had dried on his mouth. Burning, electrocuting, overdosing, dehydration, nothing had worked. He had run out of things to try on his list. Well all but one. Stumbling into an alleyway he fell against the wall and looked down at the brown paper bag in his hand. He had stole it, the first time he had truly stolen something since Freakshow had ordered him to all those years ago. How long had it been since then? 50, 60 years? He had stopped caring. He threw the bottle down the alley, hearing it shatter against the ground. For all that he had done already, this was the way that he dreaded the most.

He pulled the pistol from the bag and the bullets and loaded them in with shaky hands. This was the last thing that he could try, the last way left to him. He hadn’t had access to the ectoweapons his parents had designed since Vlad had taken them away, and the billionaire refused to left the broken halfa use them to take his life so he had tried everything else that he could. With a click he looked at the gun and brought it to his mouth closing his mouth over it. He just wanted this to be over with, to be done. Taking a deep breath he squeezed his finger tight against the trigger.

He heard the shot go off, heard it, but didn’t feel anything. Was that it? Was it over? Was he dead? But a quick glance around showed that no he wasn’t, he was still in the alleyway. Frowning he looked at the gun not understanding. He had heard it go off, knew that he had fired it… Was the first one a dud? Putting the gun into his mouth again he pulled the trigger, again he heard it go off, but again as he looked around nothing had changed. Turning around to look behind him he saw two bullet holes in the wall and slowly his mind caught up with what was happening. He was going intangible. Anytime he pulled the trigger his damn powers turned him intangible and let the bullet pass right through him! Danny screamed at the top of his lungs, throwing his head back against the wall and emptying the clip out, hearing the click, click, click, as it tried to fire without anything it in to do. His body limply fell to the side and he stared ahead.

Nothing. Nothing worked. He was going to live forever and there was nothing that he could do to end his pain. Tears ran down his face though no sound was uttered.

“That makes 101 Little Badger. Now do you understand when I said there wasn’t a way to get out of this? I have already tried them Daniel.” Danny didn’t make a sound, didn’t move, didn’t twitch at the voice. Vlad sighed and scooped up the broken halfa into his arms, “Let’s get you home Daniel, and I can tell you everything I know, now that you will listen.”

Danny’s head rolled to rest against Vlad’s arm as his lids slipped closed over lifeless, hollow eyes.


	2. Join Me, Break You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan has gotten loose and has plans involving the Master of Time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Forced Merging, blood, mentioned Temporal Trust (Danny x Clockwork)

It had only been a matter of time until Dan had broken free of his imprisonment, Clockwork knew that the ghost would not be able to be contained in the thermos forever but he did not think that he would get out so soon. He had seen the escape, had known that the ghost would come to him with an offer, but there hadn’t been much he had been able to see after that.

“It is a good offer,” Dan grinned at the Master of Time, “And it will let you live.”

“I will not be living anymore if you go through with your plan, and neither will you. We would change entirely.”

“Not entirely,” Dan said the smug grin still on his face, “If we merge whoever has the dominant personality will be the one that the ghost takes after more. I would know, after all I have been through this once already.”

Clockwork narrowed his eyes slightly, “What would make you think that I would accept this proposal from you? It has no benefits for me, only for you.”

“It doesn’t matter if you accept or not, I _will_ get what I want the only reason that I offer this is so that we can do this the easy way instead of the hard way. After all why should I spend the time breaking you if you would just be smart and agree to this right away?”

“You should know that I cannot and will not accept this agreement of yours,” Clockwork said firmly two sets of red eyes locking with each other.

Dan’s grin just got wider as he stepped towards Clockwork, “I had hoped you wouldn’t, it will make this all the more fun.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Dan smirked at the bound and bleeding temporal ghost grabbing his chin with one hand and forcing him to look up at him, “Really now Clockwork you’re just being stubborn. Give it up you can’t win.”

“No…” came the whispered reply, red eyes glazed over with pain as they looked up at his tormentor.

“Come now, you know you can’t hold out like this forever, even now your growing weaker and weaker, and soon I won’t even need you to give up, you will be too weak to fight it.”

Clockwork grinned tiredly, “If you think that you can win against me, then try.”

Dan laughed at the Master of Time, “I have already won you fool! You are broken and bleeding at _my_ mercy.”

“If that is so, then why are you still afraid to try and merge with me?” Clockwork asked.

Dan growled at him, hitting him across the face and opening up a cut on his face from it. Clockwork’s head hung low as ectoplasm ran down his face and dripped off his chin, his body no longer having the energy to keep healing itself. He just needed to keep Dan from merging with him for a while longer. Danny was coming, and he was much stronger then the last time Dan had fought him. He could win. He could beat his older self, but he had to get here first.

“Admit it,” he crocked hoarsely his head swimming and his vision no longer straight, “You know that you could not beat me, no matter how much you tried. If you merged with me now, you know there would be no way that you could win, even with how beat up I am,” Clockwork lifted his head to look at Dan his eyes burning a bright red, “You would lose.”

Dan pulled his fist back to punch the time ghost again and snarl on his face when he froze blinking a few times before laughing at the tied up ghost.

“Oh good, so very good. You had me going there for awhile Clockwork, but that’s what it was supposed to do. Isn’t that right? Your stalling Old Man, because you think that someone is going to get here that could help you, that could save you.” Dan grinned, showing all of his teeth, “but I don’t think that that is how this is going to play out for you.”

Without warning Dan turned invisible and dove into the temporal ghost, the ectorope that had been holding him falling apart. Clockwork screamed as he fought against Dan as he tried to merge with him, tried to take over his personality so that all that would be left would be the cruel and evil that Dan possessed. He couldn’t let that happen, couldn’t let Dan win! If he did everything would fall beneath him. His white hair grew slightly, almost looking like flames as it stretched out, his eyes burning red as he tried to push Dan back, tried to keep the ghost from getting the upper hand, but Dan was right. He was weak from the tender care he had received at his hand and he knew that it was only a matter of time that he would be able to hold Dan off before the ghost won.

Fangs grew as he gritted his teeth, pouring his wavering strength into keeping Dan in place, stopping him from taking over his body completely. There was no saving him, he was lost, but he still needed to hold out, had to hold out. Danny was coming and though it would be hard for him he could kill them both and the problem would be dealt with. His fingernails grew out into claws, and he hissed in pain and his serpent like tongue darted out. It was getting harder and harder to keep Dan back, harder to keep resisting him. With a large push Clockwork could feel the last of his resistance fall and he screamed out as everything went black around him.

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Danny frowned as he entered the tower, something wasn’t right. The ever present tick of many different clocks was silenced, not a single one could be heard echoing through the halls, and what made things odder was that no gears had come to great him. Where were they? And why did Clockwork have it so quiet? Had he frozen time? Danny glanced down at the watch Clockwork had given him, knowing that it would glow faintly if things had been froze but there was nothing.

“Clockwork?” he called out softly as he floated forward, “Artemis? Anyone?”

Still nothing shifted and nothing moved it was if the whole tower had been abandoned. Danny’s core quickened and he moved faster looking around for something, anything that would tell him that everything was ok, that the sinking feeling in his stomach was wrong. But the silent tower provided no clues as to what had happened. Panicking Danny flew towards the main room, the smell of ectoplasm hitting his nose before he even got there and once he had he fell to the floor and stumbled his eyes wide as he looked around him. He clutched a wall as he looked at the scene before him.  Gears lay everywhere close to death or already passed, their ectoplasm splattered on walls and the ceiling, he went to each of them too numb for tears and though he could sense worry from a few of them, none even had the strength to talk to him.

“A-Artemis…” Danny said falling to his knees as he scooped up the smallest gear, it let out a soft chitter ‘Hurt…’ Tears rolled down his face as he nuzzled against the small gear, “It’s ok Artemis, I’ll get you help, Clockwork…”

‘Run…’ It chittered weakly fear making it shake, ‘Run, run, r-ru-n…’ it chittered at him as he became still and quiet.

Danny wept not understanding why he was supposed to run, and why Clockwork’s name had made it tremble in fear. There were times when Clockwork was angry it was true, and he was never one you wanted to confront that way, but he would never hurt any of the gears. They were family to him, companions and friends everything rolled into one. For him to kill them like this… it was unthinkable. He couldn’t have. Laying the baby gear on the floor he stood his eyes flashing, he had to find out what had happened.

Darting forward he searched behind every door, every hiding place that he had ever found but still there was nothing. Taking a deep breath he phased into the one place Clockwork had told him never to go. He hadn’t known Clockwork’s tower had had a dungeon, and it had been pure dumb luck that he had found it the first time, but he had been pulled out of it as fast as he had gone in, and Clockwork had made him swear that he would never go there again. Green eyes glanced around nervously, even here it was quiet. Last time there had been a scream or two before he was pulled away, but there was nothing now, and he could smell ectoplasm. Swallowing hard he moved forward, eyes staying forward. They weren’t kept here long, those that came, they here held within a time loop until the Council could get to them, or at least they were supposed to be. Danny tried hard not to peer at the puddles of ectoplasm on the floor, knowing that they had been ghosts. This place was unsettling him, and his instincts were telling him to get out of there that it wasn’t safe, but he had to know if Clockwork was there. Red eyes loomed in the darkness ahead of him and he let out a sigh, “Clockwork.”

Though he felt relief at finally finding the time ghost his instincts had picked up, not letting him relax as he tried to gaze in the dark to see what was wrong. An ectorope shot out of the dark and wrapped around his neck and his hands shot up to grab it, trying to pull it off so that he could breathe. Whatever it was that was in the dark, it wasn’t Clockwork. “Be a dear,” it spoke causing Danny’s eyes to go wide as he recognized Clockwork’s voice though it was distorted and warped, “And dance a little dance for us.” As the ghost came out into the light Danny’s heart stopped and he understood why Artemis had shivered in fear. This was not Clockwork.

“Who?” was all Danny could get out.

“Don’t you recognize us?” He asked as he pulled Danny closer, “We are saddened. Here we thought that you would.”

Why was this ghost talking about itself as if it was more than one person? That didn’t make any sense! How could a ghost be… A cold chill of dread washed over him as he understood and the ghost in front of him smirked, pulling him closer to him and Danny’s hands whipped out in front of him to push away from the ghost.

He tried to yell at him, tried to snarl out that he would kill him for doing this to Clockwork, but he couldn’t get anything past the rope.

“Come now Daniel, you hurt us. After all aren’t we your mate?”

Green eyes flashed before shifting into blue the rope around him freezing. Jerking back the frozen rope shattered and he moved away from the merged ghost in front of him. “You are NOT Clockwork.”

“But we are. He lives in us. He called out to you, screamed for you, and you never came. We had our fun with him as we broke him.”

“SHUT UP!” Danny yelled his eyes almost completely glowing green as he fired ectoblasts at him nonstop.

The ghost simply laughed dodging the blasts and flying up through the floor. Danny chased after him, stopping and looking around for where he had gone to. He was grabbed from behind his head being forced to look up by the hand around his neck the other wrapping around his body and holding him close. He snarled at the ghost as he was held energy leaking out from his eyes from his anger.

“So feisty,” he taunted, “We can see why we bedded you.”

“Get off of me!” Danny yelled breaking free of his hold and landing a solid hit with his fist to the blue jaw. “Don’t touch me!”

The grin on the ghost face just made him even more angry, “But you forget Daniel we were Clockwork, and we know what he knew. His memories are ours now.”

Danny charged at him, firing a few ectoblasts which the ghost dodged but it left him open for Danny to get in more hits with his fists. A spectral tail wrapped around one of his legs and tossed him away into a wall, and Danny growled as he watched the red eyes and the smug grin that never seemed to leave. But something wasn’t right. He had sparred with Clockwork before and he had never been able to get a hit on the temporal ghost, so how was he doing so now. A thought struck him and he laughed at the ghost, the grin faltering slightly.

“You can’t use his powers!” Danny grinned triumphantly as the grin was wiped off the ghost face and he scowled at the halfa, “You merged with Clockwork to get his powers and you can’t even use them!”

“We might not be able to yet, but we will.”

“Yeah right, you forget Clockwork knew how the future was going to play out, you think he would let you win if he hadn’t already planned for it?!”

A soft growl emerged from the ghost in front of him at the words, “We took him by surprise. He had no chance to change anything!”

Danny just laughed at the other ghost, “If I learned one thing about him Clockwork _always_ had a plan, even if it didn’t make sense at first, he always had something in place.” The other ghost lunged at him and Danny avoided it, still grinning sending an ectoblast after his back, “Face it, you might have power, but you have no idea how to wield it!”

Danny’s eyes widened as the ghost appeared right in front of him and hit him hard across the jaw causing him to fly backwards into the ground. Trying to sit up he was again grabbed by the throat and held up, “We might not know how to wield it yet, but we will, and when we do you are going to be the one to suffer endless torment by us.”

Danny coughed out a weak laugh, “Never… learn…” he managed to get out and was thrown against a wall again for his remark.

Danny picked himself back up, and had to block the attacks that were coming at him, while he got in hits of his own were they could. They both pulled apart after awhile, Danny’s eyes still glowing but nowhere near as bad as they had been. Again and again they went after each other, but though the other ghost didn’t have control of all of his power he still had more at his disposal then Danny did.

“Give up little Phantom,” he taunted, twisting the nickname that Clockwork had given him.

“No,” Danny growled, though he could feel himself tiring, his cuts dripping ectoplasm.

“Then you will suffer as he did,” he hissed.

Swearing softly as the ghost charged back at him he stared dodging ectobeams that were shot at him, trying to keep his distance as he fired off shots of his own. He had managed to get in some good shots at the ghost, but while his strength was wavering, the ghost seemed almost as fresh as if they had just stared the fight. Clockwork had told him once that it would take a lot to make the temporal ghost slow, and he had never understood that exactly until now. The merged ghost had deeper cuts then Danny did, but they hardly seemed to slow him down, while Danny’s shallower ones wore at his strength. When they pulled away Danny was panting.

“Face it little Phantom, you can’t win, just as he couldn’t. Submit to us and we will kill you swiftly. Don’t and we can think of a thousand ways to make you suffer.”

“Only a thousand? Your losing your touch.”

The merged ghost appeared in front of him, his spectral tail grabbing his neck and slamming him back into the wall, tightening like a vise around it. Danny fought to get the tail away, raising his hands to try and shoot at the ghost. Hands reached out and grabbed hard onto them, twisting his one around until he heard a sharp crack. He tried to scream out as pain laced through the broken arm but he couldn’t get anything out.

“Just a thousand ways to make you suffer, not ways to kill or torment you, but since you insist we're sure we can manage,” he grinned.


	3. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rich History (Vlad x Clockwork)

Vlad stood in the kitchen, the top half of his suit hung over the back of one of the chairs as he started working on cooking dinner. Clockwork had told him more than once that he didn’t have to eat, but Vlad always found himself cooking for both of them, knowing that it would often get the Master of Time to come home earlier than he normally would. Not that much would be said between the two of them, even more so on days like he had had today. A soft sigh escaped him as he started to cut up some of the vegetables. It was always the same thing. Those that tried to get close to him, that hung around him, that did anything for him, often expected things in return or thought that they would be treated favorably.

He had to let his assistant go today for things that she had been doing over the past few days that had stepped over her bounds, and of course she had not wanted to leave politely, instead insisting that everything she had done had been with the mind that it was for ‘his good’ or it ‘was what he wanted’. If it had stopped there he might have been able to turn the days around, but it had only gotten progressively worse.

Feeling the presence of another ghost he tensed up slightly before he realized just who it was that the ectosignature belonged to and relaxed slightly. He didn’t call out to Clockwork as he came to silently stand next to him, helping him prepare the food. Leaning into the comfort that was always offered to him, he felt himself relax a bit more though his ‘business’ mask was still firmly in place. He had gotten so used to wearing it, to it being there that there were times, like these, that he simply couldn’t just let it drop. A hand ran over his back in a soothing motion and Vlad allowed himself to relax more.

Stopping what he was doing he turned to face the Master of Time, gently pulling down his hood and running his fingers through the white hair. The red eyes told him as much as he needed to know that Clockwork’s day had gone about as well as his had and without a word Vlad made room for him by his side. They worked in silence on their dinner, each of them giving the other small touches of comfort, be it running their hand down the other’s back, or running fingers through their hair, or smaller touches to their arms or shoulders, anything they could to wordlessly reassure each other that they were there.

Vlad sighed as he put the finished dish into the oven leaning back into the embrace that Clockwork held him in. A small soft smile, a true smile he only gave to those he cared for, pulled at his lips, finally feeling like his mask had melted away and he felt that he could finally and completely relax.

“Welcome home Vladimir,” Clockwork spoke softly and Vlad’s smile only grew. Well and truly, he was.


	4. What You Wanted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Character death, Blood
> 
> Based on a drawing by GhostChicky on tumblr

It had been easy, after all Jack was always the trusting type, so when he got a letter from his old friend telling him that he needed to talk to him alone, Jack had of course jumped on it. He had asked him to not tell anyone, not even Maddie, even though he knew how hard that would be on him. Of course the buffoon had listened to him, he wasn’t sure exactly what he had told Maddie, but Jack Fenton was coming to his mansion, and he was going to be very much alone. He had set everything up just right, prepared a bit of a sob story that he would string Jack along with. He could stand to be in the idiot’s company until his plan was seen through to the end. It wouldn’t take long after all.

it didn’t take the neanderthal long to get to his home, and he welcomed Jack with a carefully planned tone and look. He needed a friend to confide in after all, it wouldn’t do for him to look too pleased, even if the idiot was falling right into his hands. It didn’t take long before he wasn’t able to hold himself back any longer and he snapped at one of his more idiotic comments. Of course Jack had been taken aback by the sudden anger in his ‘friend’ and tried to find out just what it was that he had done. Before Vlad could stop himself he was screaming at the man about his agony in the hospital, his confusion and horror that he had found out that he had been turned into a half ghost, and his fear that his so called ‘friends’ would look at him like he was some kind of monster.

Jack sat there for a moment blinking at him before he spoke up, telling Vlad that he hadn’t known, that he was sorry that he had caused him that much pain. Again the billionaire snapped back, of course he didn’t know! He was an idiot! He had missed all of the signs that had told him what was going on right under his nose and he never once put them together. He thanked Jack as he transformed, telling him that if it wasn’t for his idiotic bumbling he never would have gotten to where he was. Jack had only stared at Vlad in shock, not even going for a weapon.

At last all of his planning, all of his schemes, and he was finally going to get to do what he had dreamed of for years. The trap sprang and understanding came to Jack too late. The oaf fell to the floor, dead and Vlad stared hard at him, waiting for a burst of laughter, of joy, of giddy elevation to hit him. He had finally done it, he had killed Jack Fenton! But the longer Vlad stood there, the less confident in his plan he was. Yes he had already killed Jack, but where was the rush of satisfaction, his joy? Why hadn’t the bitterness faded away? He had killed him but… Vlad stared at the body of the man he had once called his friend and felt only cold and numb. He could feel the blood drying against his skin, could hear that the man’s heart was no longer beating, but nothing had changed.

Blue eyes stared at the man laying on the floor unable to do anything.

“Are you happy now, Vlad? He’s dead. Isn’t that what you wanted?” A voice asked him and he could only numbly shake his head. “Jack Fenton, the man who caused you so much pain, the man who took the women you loved away from you, you killed him. Just as you always said you would.”

“I…” Vlad’s voice came out small and shakey, no where near the confident bravo that it normally had. “I wanted this…”

“Yes you did.”

“I… I wanted…” Blue eyes snapped wide and he took a step away from the body lying on the ground. “No, no this isn’t, I didn’t want…!”

“But you did Vladimir, you planned it after all.”

“But it was not supposed to be like this!” Vlad yelled at the voice, his eyes flashing red, “I am supposed to be happy! I am supposed to be rejoicing in his death! It was supposed to solve everything! So why does seeing him laying there make me sick?! Why am I waiting for him to jump up and tell me that we are still friends and that he knows I didn’t mean it!? Why do I feel like more of a monster than I ever have before?!”

His knees gave out and he fell to the ground, clutching at his head. It didn’t make sense, none of it made sense. He had thought about this moment for years so why, why was he not celebrating his victory? Why was he on the floor crying because he had killed that idiot?

“Because it was not what you truly wanted Vladimir. You have been deluding yourself for a very, very long time.”

A hand rested on his shoulder, but he didn’t try and shake it off, simply letting it rest there.

“I can give you another chance Vladimir, but only one. It is up to you what you do with it. Time in.”

\------

Blue eyes watched as the Fenton RV drove up to his home, and a man in a blinding orange jumpsuit stepping out, greeting him enthusiastically, but his joy faltered as he saw the look on Vlad’s face.

“Vladdy? Is something wrong?”

“There is a lot that is Jack, and… more than I know how to tell you.”

Jack smiled brightly, “That’s alright V-man! You can just tell me what you can and we can get to the rest of that stuff later!”

“Yes…” Vlad spoke hesitantly, but stepped back and let Jack into his home.

“Don’t worry Vladdy, you’ve got me! And whatever this is I’m sure that we can work it out together.”

“Just like old times,” Vlad said softly, though Jack still heard and he grinned broadly.

“Of course! Now come on V-man! Let’s get rid of those problems for you!”


End file.
